Blink TV Australia used our Marl Cave Mushroom Growing Image in Guillaume's Paris Episode 9

 Already in July, we got a very courteous request from Melinda Nassif | Post Producer Coordinator for Blink TV Australia.

We had to release a legal statement for granting them permission to use our postcard image. 

You can see the full post's link below.

This is the image we granted them permission to use in their series: Guillaume's Paris Episode 9 ←click link for watching the special video.

Image is visible at 05:13 (see clickable below video) and before that they explain how those white limestone buildings in Paris came about.

Blink TV Australia did an excellent job in explaining things from the past!

Both of us are grateful for having been able to provide them this rare image.

Related link:

French Claron Antique Postcards of Marl Cave Mushroom Growing | previous post by me with another link built in to a video spoken by the grandson...

Pieter Carrying Wreath with G.J.A. Van Soest at Memorial of Friends Pierre Heynen, Gérard Kinet etc., Belgium

December 27, was a rainy and miserable day for attending the funeral and memorial for the 1958 Tragedy in Zichen-Zussen-Bolder in Belgium...

Meanwhile I've come across more photos via the ISMS's (International Society for Mushroom Science) from their RESOURCES - PUBLICATIONS - CHAMPIGNONCULTUUR (the Dutch Mushroom Culture/Growing magazine that Pieter wrote big parts for, at the time). You can enter the actual magazine via link below, within blog post - but it is in Dutch...

Husband Pieter is 2nd from Left, carrying the Memorial Wreath together with his colleague G.J.A. Van Soest... (Photo Steegs)
Those were Pieter's first students as he conducted courses in Maastricht for them, at a Grandcafé, see more in the post via link before. Those were the years that Pieter did ride his motor bike...

Hoping that Gérard Kinet's two children, and Pierre Heynen's family might find this info and some final photos of their Dad.

Click link below for going to my then not complete post, with added photos and info:

1958 Tragedy for Pieter's Mushroom Friends in Zichen-Zussen-Bolder in Belgium

Comments are off here... only on above link!

Visiting Dutch Mushroom Grower in Marl Cave

Being the Founder/Principal of the Practical Training College, my then boss, now husband Pieter, did take all of us in September of 1970 to the ONLY existing Mushroom Growing Marl Cave.

That was in the deep south of The Netherlands, in Maastricht the capital city of my Province Limburg.

Here we are inside the Marl Cave, of Mount Saint Peter, studying the mushrooms on those ridge beds ― on the floor!

Just imagine, what a toilfully labor it must have been for growing mushrooms inside a cave...

To the left, only her leg is visible, was a 2nd cousin, then 2nd from the left in the red lacquer coat its me... My sister Diny is standing with her face towards the ridge beds. Pieter is next to her and writing on the wall is my late 2nd cousin... Some other colleagues and the gentleman to the right in the back was our guide. 

Writing on the wall was easy, as this limestone is rather soft!

This is also inside Mount Saint Peter, from an old post card that Pieter saved from long time ago.
Those ridge beds on the floor were covered with ground up marl.

Photo by Lahaye, from P. J.C. Vedder's Moderne Champignonteelt, his Dutch publication.
After WWII some people started growing mushrooms in caves in the southern part of The Netherland; a way of growing at that time already quite common in France...

Also in Mount Saint Peter from one of P.J.C. Vedder's publications...

Hill beds in St. Peter's Mountain. The soil is not always flat and the dams to prevent the flow away of water sprayed, through the paths are extra needed. Cream mushrooms. (Photo "The South")

This photo is from the No. 4 - SEPTEMBER 1957 Champignon-cultuur, the Dutch mushroom magazine (click link for full Pdf from ISMS)

This photo is from the No. 4 - SEPTEMBER 1957 Champignon-cultuur, the Dutch mushroom magazine

Mr. Geijtenbeek studies the first tests with new culture technique inside the caves (Photo ENCI)

Fa. Gebr. Pluymackers, Maastricht

This is HISTORY now!
But grateful for having seen this with my own eyes, so did my colleagues after we'd visited first the ENCI (Eerste Nederlandse Cement Industrie or First Dutch Cement Industry) from 1926.
An interesting video about ENCI: bedrijfsfilm 2016 (in Dutch but still good to see how it all gets done). In July of 2018 they stopped with further digging, they still produce cement but haul it from elsewhere.

Related links:
1978 - P.J.C. Vedder's Modern Mushroom Growing Book Published in English | previous post by me
{My Teacher, Mentor, BOSS & Husband over 44+ Years} | previous post by me
{Angels engraved on lucky calendar coin of 1969} | previous post by me

The Living Mushroom Cave in Le Puy Notre Dame on the Loire, France

Just have to share this unique story with you and the world...
Open for Tourism and as restaurant and shop!

We met the person Jacky Roulleau who is running this!
See link at the very bottom under final photo...

In French: variété blonde du champignon de Paris

This is the brown variety of the champignon de Paris, what we call button mushroom or Agaricus

Okay, on Sunday, January 8 of 1989, husband Pieter left via Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (we lived in Shillington, Pennsylvania at the time) to Kalamazoo, in Michigan for meeting with 6 French men. One of them was Jacky Roulleau.

They went to the Glenn Farm, one of Campbell's mushroom farms on January 9 and to the Brighton Farm on January 10. 

On January 11, Pieter flew back to Philadelphia with lots of delay, his 1st time with Piedmont airlines... 

In the evening Pieter did take me along to the Sheraton hotel in Reading to meet with the French men. We all went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner together.

We received a tile from Le Puy Notre Dame with it's Church

Also a bottle of Fiji eau de toilette and a Taste Vin...

This French Pewter Taste Vin from ETAINS DU MANOIR was a gift from our French mushroom colleagues.

Inside you read the French Wine Quote: Beuvez toujours ne mourrez jamais. 

Drink always and never die. Widely attributed to François Rabelais.

Below post is a link to my previous post for learning more about this piece...

A special card from Le Puy Notre Dame

Le Puy Notre Dame seen by... Richard Kleeman

Edition The Corner of the Eye

On January 26, 1989 Jacky Roulleau wrote a very nice letter:

Dear Friend,

I don't know how to thank you for everything you did for us. Having been all my life around mushrooms, I've always wanted to shake hands with a man we only knew from his book, the famous Vedder.

I won't say more except that I'm sure our fathers would have loved to be with us.

My colleagues and myself have understood that simplicity and efficiency are the keys to success in the mushroom world.

Please give our best regards to your charming wife, and I hope we'll see you soon in France.

Sincerely,

Jacky Roulleau

Another treasured 'mushroom' editorial review.

CULTURE MODERNE DES CHAMPIGNONS is the book Jacky was referring to.

Pieter's French edition, out of 8 official languages being published.

~

We met again on May 20, 1989 during the Tecno Mico in Verona, Italy where Pieter worked out a construction design for them and Gerard Derks built it in France, in late summer.

At that time we already lived and worked in Italy and on May 27, Gerard and his wife Pauline Derks came to dinner at our apartment and they delivered 4 bottles of French Chinon wine from the French men! Surprise...

~

Small world and now Jacky and his son Julian, are running their business of mushroom growing inside the cave and opening it for tourism from end of March through early October.

The Living Mushroom Cave - Tourist Attraction from end of March till early October in Le Puy Notre Dame on the Loire, France click link

Year round they sell their product and also other varieties of mushrooms they grow inside the cave.

Regional restaurants buy their produce and prepare delicious food, a wonderful way for visiting and learning!

Look at those broad stems as a good mushroom quality criteria...

Hope you enjoyed this post!

{French Pewter Taste Vin} | previous post

modern mushroom growing 2020 harvesting | post about our newest publication

From Regensburg, Germany to Bordeaux in France and Marl Cave Mushroom Growing

Sunday morning, October 26, 1986 we had breakfast and started packing up and left by 10:40 for our journey towards Paris, France.
Yep, in our cute Fiat Uno rental car...

We made it till Dourdan and spent the night there after driving 960 km that day or 596 miles.

We stayed at a four-star kind of castle; Hostellerie Blanche de Castille in Dourdan click through.

We had lovely weather with a little rain but good Interstates with high toll! It was expensive driving in France.

We ate a soup and went to bed.

Monday, October 27, after breakfast we started driving to Bordeaux with great weather and we made steady progress, covering another 540 km or 336 miles.

We easily found the Mercure Bordeaux Lac Hotel click it.
We did team up with François Falconnet and Jean & Marianne Laborde for a great dinner in our hotel at 20:30.

Tuesday October 28, we packed up and had breakfast with François Falconnet and we went with him by 8:15 to the Experimental Station where Jean Laborde was working.

Admiring Jacques Delmas' Pleurotus lactarius at their experimental station.

Yes, it was chilly when we went to look for some mushrooms and Pieter had lend me his jacket... Jean Laborde next to me and in the white jacket is another scientist colleague and then François Falconnet to the right.
We now proceed towards Châtellerault where we first have lunch en route.
The beautiful West of France!

What we covered that day. Departing from Bordeaux and lunch before Châtellerault and on to the compost place in Dangé-Saint-Romain, see below. End of day was our hotel in Tours...
Too bad we could not linger and explore... work related visits only.

After lunch we proceeded to a Compost Place:
Centrale de Compost du Chatelleraudais in 86220 Dangé-Saint-Romain

Me, overlooking the compost slab...

At the compost slab... You see the piles of raw material.

Now it's on to Tours where we stay for two nights at LOGIS HÔTEL DES CHÂTEAUX DE LA LOIRE in VIEUX TOURS, FRANCE just click through.

We have dinner with François Falconnet and his wife and Jeanne and Gilles d'Hardemare and walked through Vieux Tours together.

On Wednesday, October 29, Pieter joins François Falconnet after breakfast for a visit with Gilles d'Hardemare and seeing Old Tunnel and Caves.
Also new experiment tunnels, short composting.

Claude Desjouis in Mamers

François Falconnet in the white shirt inside the caves from Royal Champignon

Harvesters busy inside such caves for Royal Champignon in Bagneux

Brown mushrooms from the caves and harvested with their roots!
~
Pieter spent his day together with his scientist colleagues and I explored Vieux Tours, the Old City Center of Tours from 11-16:00 and enjoyed lunch in a 15th century restaurant.

Finding little gifts for daughter Liz, for Uncle Bo Whaley and a cute Limoges candleholder for in my letter box. See above next to a US penny... It is small!
Did write some letters, also to a French born lady that lives in Dublin, Georgia; Genevieve Alexander...
We had once more dinner in Vieux Tours with François Falconnet and walked home to our hotel...

Next day after breakfast we started the journey back to Horst aan de Maas and doing so we completed our total of 3,311 km or 2,057 miles in the little Fiat Uno rental car.
From Horst aan de Maas to the German Mushroom Conference in Regensburg and then on to Bordeaux etc.
That's how Pieter stayed in close touch with the international colleagues within the Mushroom Industry and gathered information and knowledge for his students.
It always worked mutual, by giving away knowledge, you also gain...

Fond memories!

Related posts:
Lecture by Pieter and Stay at UNESCO site Regensburg during German Mushroom Conference | previous post
{Vintage Religious Paper Lace from France and Immaculate Conception} | previous post

Visiting Blanchaud Champignons in Saumur, France

Well, on Friday, June 10 of 1983, just before immigrating to the USA, I did get to travel along with Pieter as he visited once more a mushroom grower that produced inside the marl caves.

This time it was the big company of Blanchaud Champignons in Saumur, France.
Founded in 1948 by Maurice Blanchaud.

We had arrived early in the morning together with Pieter and his friend Chris, HOPING to see their Saumur Château on the River Loire.

Saumur is more to the left on this map and their château is not on this card, neither do we have photos...

Well, Madame Blanchaud let us in through the impressive foyer and walked us straight THROUGH the Chateau and out on the terras, overlooking the River Loire.

Not quite the tour my friend and I had dreamed of...
While the men were gone, to work out the design of a mushroom plant, we had to manage on our own!

Well, it was beautiful on the River Loire but now I had to converse in FRENCH!

Madame Blanchaud knew how to help us become more 'fluent'... she started serving us wine in the morning!

Good grief, how would we LAST till lunch time, when our husbands would return...?!

This is their label: Blanchaud champignons de Paris or Whole Button as we know them.
Yes they did grow them in marl caves and they also had a large cannery!

Finally the husbands returned from the mushrooms in the marl caves.
But friend Chris made one mistake, picking up the bottle and studying its label... So we had to live through yet another round of wine!

Husband Pieter now seated next to me and enjoying the red wine from the bottle Chris just studied...
After all, they just returned from work and had not had any wine yet!
Chris is the person that built the Mushroom Plants for Campbell Soup, here in Dublin and in Hillsboro, Texas and the Blanchaud family wanted to build a modern plant as well...

From 8:00 on, Ad (next to Pieter) and I had to drink wine with Madame Blanchaud (in black)...

My French was getting better and better - haha!

FINALLY... lunch time!

But we ran out of luck AGAIN... no seating inside the restaurant, so we had to wait outside and enjoy an apéritif while waiting.

That's easy... just more drinking and BETTER FRENCH!

Madame Blanchaud used her hands while talking...

Suddenly I got a terrible HICCUP!

Now Madame Blanchaud taught me how to stand, while drinking water from the opposite side of the glass in order to cure that nasty hiccup. It WORKED!

We had a delicious meal inside the restaurant, no photos as our photographers with their camera were not at their best...

Monsieur Blanchaud was fetching us a BOX of the red wine (the one that Chris liked), at a nearby vineyard and he would drop it off at our hotel.

So we had to WAIT

We all had collapsed in our room on the bed... we had adjacent rooms with connecting door.

Without turning the light on, I made this photo after I'd climbed on top of the armoir - an aerial view of some worn out Dutch people in France!

~

Finally the box with Saumur Champigny wine bottles got delivered and we all could finally retire...

We slept and got cured from our drinking daze!

That was at the Novotel, Blois in France...

Life in the Mushroom Business can be quite interesting!

Stay tuned for more!

Related posts:
Royal Champignon 1954 Inside Marl Caves in France | previous post
Pieter Visiting Marl Cave Mushroom Grower in Bordeaux France | previous post
1965 Pieter visiting French Mushroom Grower Sarrazin near Historic Compiègne | previous post
French Claron Antique Postcards of Marl Cave Mushroom Growing | previous post
1958 Tragedy for Pieter's Mushroom Friends in Zichen-Zussen-Bolder in Belgium | previous post
Husband Pieter visiting Mushrooms in the Cave - Bradford-on-Avon in England | previous post
Husband Pieter's Design for the Campbell Mushroom Plants in Dublin, GA and Hillsboro, TX | previous post

Royal Champignon 1954 Inside Marl Caves in France

A piece of history and a very rare video from that era when lots of people in France still grew mushrooms (champignons in French and in Dutch!) in the many caves.

From the Middle Ages to the late nineteenth century, the limestone was extracted for the construction of many buildings like castles, churches and mansions.

Yes, a mushroom doubles its size every 24 hours... You see the brown variety of Agaricus above.
Picture shows such Perfect quality mushrooms grown in a marl cave in France! Click link.
In the old quarries people started bringing in compost for growing mushrooms inside those caves where the climate is perfect for HIGH QUALITY mushrooms!

The only disadvantage is the high labor intensity and also the rather slow growing cycle due to the constant lower temperature.

Instead of making ridge beds on the floor inside those marl caves, Royal Champignon in 1954 used wooden trays to fill those with the compost.
Transporting those trays inside the caves...

Harvesting them off the tray beds by twisting them out of the casing layer on top of the compost. YES the French and also the Italians harvest their mushrooms with the roots left on!
Watch the interesting video about Royal Champignon 1954 by clicking link.
Royal Champignon got created in 1941 by Georges Guilbaud and was a powerful holding company, including cannery.
It used to be a very important employer in the French Saumur region.

They now seem to be under Bonduelle.
The above screenshot is in funny English, translated from French and not always perfect.
You can click through here for original: Saumur Royal Champignon is well and truly over... but at least they are still employing people!

Related posts:

modern mushroom growing 2020 harvesting | post about our newest publication

Pieter Visiting Marl Cave Mushroom Grower in Bordeaux France | previous post
1965 Pieter visiting French Mushroom Grower Sarrazin near Historic Compiègne | previous post
French Claron Antique Postcards of Marl Cave Mushroom Growing | previous post
1958 Tragedy for Pieter's Mushroom Friends in Zichen-Zussen-Bolder in Belgium | previous post
Husband Pieter visiting Mushrooms in the Cave - Bradford-on-Avon in England | previous post